Kaoru Ishikawa : Father of QCC

Professor Ishikawa was born in 1915 and graduated in 1939 from the Engineering Department of Tokyo University. In 1947 he became an Assistant Professor at the University and was promoted to Professor in 1960.He was awarded the Deming Prize and the Industrial Standardization Prize for his writings on Quality Control, and the Grant Award from the American Society for Quality Control in 1971 for his education programme on quality control. He died in April 1989.

   Professor Ishikawa is best known as a pioneer of the Quality Circle movement in Japan in the early 1960. This movement has now been re-exported to the west.

Ishikawa's Contribution to quality 

Ishikawa's biggest contribution is in simplifying statistical techniques for quality control in industry. He developed the 7QC tools for solving the problem in factories related to quality.The 7QC Tools that he was developed are 

1. Process flow diagram
2. Check Sheet
3. Histogram
4. Pareto Diagram
5. Cause and Effect diagram
6. Scatter Diagram &
7. Control Charts

At the simplest technical level, his work has emphasised good data collection and presentation. He has been known as father of QCC ( Quality Control Circle). A Quality control circle (QCC) is the team of people usually coming from the same work area who voluntarily meet on a regular basis to identify , investigate, analyse and solve their work-related problems. To solve the problem the team use 7QC tools for collecting, analyzing and presentation of the data related to the problem.

  Ishikawa diagram also known as Cause and Effect Diagram or Fishbone diagram like other 7 QC tools, is another big contribution by Ishikawa. It is a device to assist the quality circles in quality improvement. Ishikawa emphasis open group communication as critical to the construction of the diagrams. Ishikawa diagrams are useful as systematic tools for finding, sorting out and documenting the causes of variation of quality in production and organizing mutual relationships between them. 

  Other than technical contributions to quality, Ishikawa is associated with the Company-wide Quality Control(CWQC) Movement that started in Japan during the period 1955-60 following visits of Deming and Juran. Ishikawa sees the CWQC as implying that quality does not only mean the quality of product, but also of after sales service, quality of management, the company itself and the human life. The outcomes of such approach are 

1. Product quality is improved and becomes uniform. Defects are reduced
2. Reliability of goods is improved 
3. Cost is reduced 
4. Quantity of production is increased, and it becomes possible to make rational production schedules.
5. Wasteful work and rework are reduced.
6. Technique is established and improved.
7. Expenses for inspection and testing are reduced.
8. Contracts between vendor and vendee are rationalized.
9. The sales market is enlarged.
10. Better relationships are established between departments.
11. False data and reports are reduced. 
12. Discussions are carried out more freely and democratically.
13. Meetings are operated more smoothly.
14. Repairs and installation of equipment and facilities are done more rationally. 
15. Human relations are improved.